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Assaults in opposition to College of California, Berkeley, college students carrying Israeli flags aren’t being investigated as hate crimes, stated a graduate pupil who claimed the scholars have been assaulted due to their Jewish identities.
“Jewish college students have been intimidated they usually have been aggressively approached and their private property was tried to be taken they usually have been verbally harassed due to an merchandise they have been carrying to convey and specific their Jewish id,” Hannah Schlacter, a Berkeley MBA pupil, advised Fox Information. “Proper now, the college and [the University of California Police Department], they’ve not declared these hate crimes.”
“Extra importantly, although, they don’t seem to be even investigating these crimes as hate crimes,” she continued. “That is about the truth that when there are points and incidents affecting Jewish college students on campus, I’m not seeing the college implement the insurance policies in place.”
A lawsuit filed by the Jewish People for Equity in Training and the pro-Israel Brandeis Heart accuses U.C. Berkeley, Berkeley Regulation and the College of California president for longstanding antisemitism on campus. (L: Fox Information Digital/ R: Getty Pictures)
ANTISEMITISM EXPOSED
In two incidents, assailants aggressively tried to take Israeli flags from college students, shoving and cursing at them within the course of, movies reviewed by Fox Information present. In a single, a crowd gathered round a pupil draped in an Israeli flag who was struck within the head with a steel water bottle.
The movies are a part of a lawsuit filed final week by the Brandeis Heart — a pro-Israel nonprofit — and Jewish People for Equity in Training in opposition to the College of California Board of Regents, the college president and different faculty officers for “longstanding, unchecked unfold of anti-Semitism” on campus.
“Following the October 7 Hamas assaults, [the university] has erupted in on-campus shows of hatred, harassment, and bodily violence in opposition to Jews,” the lawsuit states. The Jewish teams argue that courts should intervene to guard the civil rights of Jewish college students and school and finish “anti-Semitic discrimination and harassment.”
UC BERKELEY STUDENT DETAILS ANTISEMITISM ON CAMPUS SINCE OCT. 7:
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The scholar struck with the water bottle was Jewish, in line with the swimsuit, and the video exhibits he was hit by a protester carrying a black and white keffiyeh, a conventional Palestinian headdress.
“To this point the police division has obtained a single report of alleged violence, the one involving the water bottle,” Berkeley spokesperson Dan Mogulof advised Fox Information in an announcement. “The college is taking this very critically, and the scholar has been provided assist.”
Schlacter claims the college violated its coverage by not investigating the water bottle assault as a hate crime. However Mogulof denied allegations of mishandling harassment claims.
“If proof gathered in the course of the police division’s ongoing investigation signifies it was a hate crime, that’s how will probably be charged,” Mogulof advised Fox Information. “We reject utterly any declare that experiences of harassment or discrimination filed by Jewish college students are handled in a different way than others.”
Each pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel demonstrations have taken place on the U.C. Berkeley campus for the reason that Oct. 7 assaults. Many demonstrations have been met with counter-protests. (REUTERS/Carlos Barria/File Picture)
The College of California Police Division didn’t return a request for remark.
One other video, nonetheless, exhibits two protesters grabbing a pupil’s Israel flag, accosting him as they attempt to take it. One assailant was carrying a shirt with “DESTROY WHITE SUPREMACY” written on the entrance and cursed at onlookers.
The lawsuit detailed further incidents, resembling pro-Palestinian activists disrupting a Jewish pupil group’s prayer service and one other occasion the place pro-Palestinian advocates blocked the principle entrance to the varsity.
As a public college, Berkeley does not have the authorized authority to cease demonstrations or expressions that others would take into account offensive, Mogulof stated.
PRO-ISRAEL ADVOCATES DESCRIBE WITNESSING ANTISEMITISM SINCE OCT. 7: ‘DON’T REALLY FEEL SAFE’
There has additionally been ongoing vandalism that includes antisemitic messages, Schlacter advised Fox Information.
“We have had two Jewish college students bodily assaulted on campus when expressing their Jewish id through holding an Israeli flag to convey their nationwide origin,” Schlacter stated. She accused the college of violating Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination primarily based on race, coloration and nationwide origin.
“We’re seeing on U.C. campuses violence and a failure to reply to the violence,” Schlacter added.
U.C. Berkeley is already dealing with an ongoing U.S. Division of Training investigation over alleged Title VI violations. The probe was launched in December 2022 after Jewish college students complained that 9 pupil organizations’ pledge to not invite pro-Israel audio system to campus created a “hostile setting,” Jewish Insider reported.
Moreover, she and the lawsuit argued that the Berkeley Regulation Faculty broke college coverage because it hasn’t stopped some pupil teams from excluding members primarily based on their beliefs in Zionism.
GROUPS FEAR FACULTY THAT DEFENDED HAMAS COULD SET CALIFORNIA STANDARDS: ‘INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF ANTISEMITISM’
Protesters maintain a “FREE PALESTINE” banner after the U.C. Berkeley soccer staff beat Standford College. (David Madison/Getty Pictures)
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In November, College of California President Michael V. Drake, M.D. introduced numerous system-wide initiatives that “deal with pupil assist and campus security to enhance the local weather on campus in mild of latest occasions in Israel and Gaza,” College of California spokesperson Ryan King advised Fox Information in an announcement.
Different school campuses have confronted related scrutiny over antisemitism on campus. Since Oct. 7, the Division of Training, for instance, has opened Title VI discrimination investigations into Harvard, Columbia and Cornell universities, in addition to the College of Pennsylvania.
To observe the total interview with Schlacter about antisemitism at Berkeley, click on right here.
Ramiro Vargas contributed to the accompanying video. Chris Pandolfo contributed to this report.
